[media-credit name=”Photo from Centennial 38″ align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] No longer divided, the three supporters groups are one.

On a warm fall night last year, representatives of the three Colorado Rapids supporters groups met over beers.

The groups had not always seen eye to eye, for a number of reasons. But leaders of the Pid Army, Class VI and Bulldog Supporters Group had just experienced firsthand the value of a united front: going together to the club’s front office to help resolve long-running concerns about overzealous and inconsistent security at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

“I said, ‘I have beers in the fridge – let’s talk,” recalled Dave Wegner, then president of BSG. “The thought was, ‘We worked together so well on this.’ I think it goes to show, unified, we can leverage ourselves much better.”

The meeting set in motion what would become – with the blessing of a vote from members of all three groups – one united Rapids supporters group called Centennial 38.

When the Rapids play their home opener Saturday against the Philadelphia Union, they will have behind them a unified group of about 1,000 ardent supporters who hope to plant a seed of passion that will spread to other corners of a stadium that has not exactly been a cauldron.

The club’s front office is behind the effort, and Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber said this week the united group is an important step toward improving the experience of attending a game.

[2]

[media-credit name=”Karl Gehring, The Denver Post” align=”alignleft” width=”270″][/media-credit] MLS Commissioner Don Garber, in a visit Wednesday to the Post offices, said the Rapids are headed in the right direction.

“You’ve got a small group of passionate supporters but if you could somehow marshal them together, create an environment that would give the team a point of differentiation in the marketplace, I think it would be positive,” Garber said during a visit to The Post this week. (More from Garber below about the Rapids’ prospects for growing the fan base).

The supporters dynamic in MLS is unique in American sports. Nowhere else do organized fan groups have a seat at the table like in MLS – sometimes as a thorn in the side of management, sometimes as a partner, sometimes a little of both.

The Rapids have seen supporters groups come and go. As of last year, there were three: Pid Army, a band of ruffians with a spray-painted van who lead chants from the standing-only section behind the north goal known as the Terrace; Class VI, with fans who tend to be a bit older, may have kids, and prefer the seats and better sight lines of Section 108; and the Bulldog Supporters Group, another Terrace-based group that grew out of the downtown soccer pub The British Bulldog.

Most of the past divisions involved the more established Pid Army and the Bulldog Supporters Group – in large part because both were after the same demographic and shared a section.

“There were some strained relationships between the groups, to put it mildly,” Wegner said. “It was a competition, some of it healthy, which drove the other to be better. Sometimes toes get stepped on and the cultures are different.”

When leaders of the three groups brought the idea of uniting to members, the response was overwhelmingly positive, Wegner said.

“It was borderline unanimous and caught us all by surprise,” he said. “We expected a lot more blowback.”

Members were given a choice: blow up all three groups and form one unified group or form an umbrella group that would oversee all three, allowing them to maintain their identities. Wegner said members voted 3-1 to start anew.

Other MLS clubs have umbrella groups governed by a united board, under which there are individual supporters groups. Section 8 in Chicago is one. Jordan Ochoa of C-38, who maintains relations with other clubs’ supporters groups, believes C-38 might be unique.

“We are a special case, I will say that,” Ochoa said. “I think we’re the first ones to drop everything and say, ‘Let’s come together as one group.’’”

Wegner said the Rapids front office supported the move, but the move was the supporters’ alone.

The hard part … coming up with a name. The leadership solicited ideas and received about 300 suggestions. Several themes emerged: references to 5280, Denver, Colorado as the Centennial State or 38th state, Queen City (as in, Queen City of the Plains), the Rocky Mountains, and references to skiing. One of the more polarizing questions was whether the group should be a corps, brigade or army.

Members were then given a list of themes, rather than specific names, from which to choose. The leadership then took the votes and sought to find consensus.

[4]

[media-credit name=”Denver Post file” align=”alignleft” width=”270″][/media-credit] Section 108 tickets will only be available to purchase from Centennial 38.

Some possibilities were ruled out – Mile High was too associated with the Broncos, 5280 was too Denver-centric and Queen City was a nickname Denver shared with many cities.

Centennial and the 38 theme were both popular, hence Centennial 38. Some joked that C-38 sounded like an airport gate. Mark Bodmer, of Class VI, reminded his members that not everyone loved that name either at first.

“But it’s not really about the name,” Bodmer wrote in an e-mail. “It’s about who we are – it’s about supporting the Rapids – and it’s about growing supporters of the Colorado Rapids and making DSG Park like watching a match in Portland or Manchester or Rio.”

So how can the new group improve the stadium experience and grow local support for the Rapids? One step: the club has agreed to basically hand over the Terrace and Section 108 to the groups. To get a ticket in those sections, fans have to go through the supporters groups.

One idea is to stand for the 76th minute of every game – a nod to Colorado’s entry into statehood in 1876.

“We need to be more present in the stadium in terms of how to affect things,” Wegner said.

“For most people who come to the games, especially first-timers, they are used to football, baseball or basketball, where you cheer to react to something,” Wegner said. “In soccer, you don’t cheer a result, but in anticipating of something happening. You have to cheer a lot, because there is a lot of anticipating in soccer.”

We’ve written before about the challenges the Rapids face[5] in creating a stadium atmosphere that rivals the best in MLS – the tough balance of serving different fan bases, the stadium location, and more. We asked Garber – who emphasizes the importance of making clubs more relevant in their local markets – about the particular issues facing the Rapids.

“This is a very strong suburban soccer market,” Garber said. “The strength in the sport is much more about participation, and much more about kids playing, and it has been less about that urban hipster living downtown who is looking for an alternative sports experience that’s affordable and can allow them to engage with an in-stadium experience that will be very different to anything else you can experience in this community. That’s growing here, and I think you will see it grow more and more. Once you put (the groups) together, it will be unique.”

Garber called Denver a “great soccer market,” citing the quick sellout of the U.S. men’s national team World Cup qualifier March 22 versus Costa Rica at Dick’s Sporting Good Park, which follows a full house last year for a women’s national team friendly against Australia.

Teams with flourishing fan cultures – Seattle and Portland top the list – have downtown stadiums that make it easier to draw the Gen Y fans MLS desires. Garber, though, singled out the benefits of the Rapids complex in Commerce City, especially the surrounding fields. He cited a planned light rail stop in Stapleton and additional housing development planned for the area (which was slowed by the recession).

“It’s a unique situation with the fields out there,” Garber said. “That gives them something most other clubs in MLS do not have. It also allows them, if done right, to connect with the hundreds of thousands of people that play. There is something there that I think is of great value. Would it be easier if you had a downtown stadium to crawl out of a pub and go to a game? Perhaps, but it’s a long-term proposition. .. Stan Kroenke is a long-term investor.”

Wegner points out that “the location is not great, but it is 10 minutes from downtown.” To further close the gap, C-38 is running four chartered buses from Denver soccer bars on game days.

When you add in tickets in the standing section, the tailgate, that’s entertainment from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. for less than $40, he said.

“We need to get that information out there more,” he said.

Eric Gorski is a Denver Post reporter, Rapids season ticket-holder and member of Centennial 38 who writes about supporters issues for The Terrace.

As a long time member of the TA (2002) I have to say that it is about time that the supporters groups team together to create a united group. I believe that in addition to working with the front office in Denver, that the cooperative groups should also stand with, and when necessary against the MLS and Doin Garber. The idea that the MLS would profit from the cup that is shared with Salt Lake offends EVERY true fan of the game. We wish the groups well, and look forward to being a truly united group of supporters moving forward. Well done Colorado Fans!

#3 Comment By Rob McColl On March 8, 2013 @ 8:30 pm

Anytime anywhere Salt Lake Fakers. I love the C38 concept because it means all of our efforts go where they belong supporting the Rocky Mountain Football Team we all love.

[5] downsizing the Terrace and eliminating a walkway between two sets of bleachers that literally kept the two supporters groups separate: http://blogs.denverpost.com/rapids/2012/10/27/rapids-incredibly-shrinking-terraces-step/23972/